Agenda and draft minutes

Resolved to note that apologies for absence were received from Councillors L Lawman and McEwan

The chair invited those present to make a declaration if they so wished.

Resolved to note that no declarations were made.

The circulated report of the Assistant Director – Regulatory Services was received to provide information in relation to requests received from Hackney Carriage proprietor to implement fare increases for hackney carriage journeys. 

The report summarised the discretionary power of the licensing authority to fix the rate of Hackney Carriage fares within its area and to publish a table of fares for display in every hackney carriage.  Once set, the tariff would be the maximum amount that could be charged for journeys starting and ending in the prescribed geographical area. If a proprietor wished, they could charge a lower fare if they wished to do so, but it would be an offence to charge a higher fare.

A previous report, presented to committee in May, had resulted in members of the taxi trade objecting to the proposed harmonisation rate. To allow for further consideration and consultation with the trade the proposal for the Executive to decide the matter had been delayed.  Further options for an aligned tariff of fares had been identified and the trade had been consulted.

The Interim Environmental Health Lead, Amanda Wilcox, presented the report to committee and explained that there were currently four separate Hackney Carriage Zones which had been aligned to the previous sovereign council districts, with each having different fares.

A report to committee on 9 May 2022 had been proposed to recommend to the Executive that fares be aligned and harmonised. This had resulted in several concerns being raised by the trade.

Details of the fares for Corby Zone, East Northamptonshire Zone, Kettering Zone and Wellingborough Zone were provided within the report.

A request had also been received from Wellingborough Hackney Carriage Association for consideration to be given to an automatic increase of 10 pence per mile to the fare every second year; and to an automatic increase of 20 pence to the standard minimum charge in every fourth year. 

Officers advised that it was not legally permissible, to allow for the automatic increase in fares, due to the need to follow a prescribed statutory procedure, which included consultation, for every potential fare change.

Committee was asked to consider whether to harmonise the fares, to achieve parity for a wider section of the travelling public and provide consistent fare rates across the whole of the new council area by aligning the fare calculation methodology in each zone.

A consultation letter had been sent to 184 licensed Hackney Carriage proprietors setting out five different options for consideration, details of which were contained in Appendix F of the report with the responses detailed in Appendix G.    

In summary the following preferences were indicated, with the most favoured by Hackney Carriage Proprietors being option 1:

·         Rank one: Option 1 – favoured by 60;

·         Rank two:  Option 2 and option 4 – both favoured by two;

·         Rank four:  Option 3 – favoured by one.

In addition to the above 52 drivers, 48 from the Corby zone, four from Wellingborough zone and one from East Northamptonshire zone, had indicated  ...  view the full minutes text for item Lic/3

The meeting closed at 7.35pm.